Overview

Distant view of Twin Peaks

Here is an interesting mountain just outside of White Pass that has very little information on it. What makes it stranger is that this Twin Peaks is accessible by trail pretty much on two sides of the mountain which each of these trail up to the double pointed peak. Of the two summit the eastern summit is the higher one while the western summit is the more scenic one. Both peaks though have decent views of Rainier and the southern Washington Cascades.

The burnt up eastern summit

The eastern summit was heavily affect my a recent forest fire. You can see views from the summit here but often it is a burnt tree that blocks the way here. It should be noted that the trail that comes up from the east and the west here actually fades away just beyond the true summit. My guess is that the this is largely due to the forest fire here. On the northern side of the eastern side excellent views of Mount Rainier, Mount Aix and many other mountains in the region.

Good view from this double summit

The western summit area is much more open on all sides and is connected to the eastern summit by moderately narrow ridge. This ridge is easy to traverse. The western sub summit has commanding views both north to Rainier and south to Goats Rocks Wilderness, Hogback Mountain and many other the other prominent peaks in the region. The trail actually travels faint along the southern slopes of the western peak and can be hard to spot especially in the steeper sloping area. If you are just using the trail and have no interest in head to the western summit use caution with footing here.

The view north

The Twin Peaks Trail

CascadeCohen on the ridge

The Twin Peaks trail can be picked up either by the Round Mountain Trail from the east or from the Pacific Crest Trail from the west. The Pacific Crest Trail side is a little more difficult with the a steep section that rises from the west. This is also a little more distance but can link with a decent camp spot in Ginette Lake. Parts of trail does need better maintainence. This lack of popularity and maintainence is probably due to the recent forest fire that impacted Twin Peaks.

CascadeCohen going down the steeper trail

Noting what I saw there might be good potential to make this a winter snowshoe or snow climb trip. The approach would probably be better from the easy via Round Mountain. It can also be done from the west in the Pacific Crest Trail but the winter route would probably be much different.

Getting There

VIA WHITE PASS: Take Route 12 all the way to White Pass. Roughly one mile east of White Pass you will see Pacific Crest Trail Parking on your right hand side. This is about a mile east of the ski area.

Red Tape

Northwest Forest Pass required.

Camping

Backcountry Camping is allowed with a number of areas such as Ginette Lake 2 miles from the trailhead on the Pacific Crest Trail. Also there are a number area on this peak which are doable for a bivy.